to Reaches
by tehwillowz
Summary: In an alternate 9th Pass the end of Thread is in sight, but something isn't quite right. Only a few months into the safety of the Interval disaster strikes...
1. Prologue

_At the end of the ninth Pass the inhabitants of Pern were starting to believe that Thread was gradually starting to become less of a threat. The last half of the Pass was far easier than was expected, with Falls tapering off to become quite infrequent. The golden queens began laying less and less eggs, indicated a smaller need for the draconic warriors to protect their planet. It was hopeful and jubilant and as the last predicted Fall grew near there was almost a sense of disappointment that not everyone who flew into that last fight even got to char some of the enemy, but regardless Pern was happy that it was over. Perhaps the next time there would be even less to worry about, was the new thought._

 _Society began to settle into its new way of life with a sense of freedom. Many riders migrated out of the Weyrs to pursue crafts or hold-life while the population of the planet began to spread themselves to areas of the world that weren't safe before. The warmer climates of the southern continent were popular and exploration moved that way in earnest. Southern Weyr was the first to begin expanding outward, staking as much claim as they could before the North started making its way to them._

 _The first sign that something wasn't quite right was a few months before the end of the Pass when High Reaches queen Evareth laid a staggering clutch of forty-one eggs, more than double what average during an Interval. There was worry that someone had miscalculated somewhere and the Weyrs met to pour over the charts, but they couldn't find anything to indicate that there was any threat. The next queen to lay was Southern Weyr's gold Shevath with thirty-two eggs including another queen._

 _Again the Weyr came together, but they couldn't find any solid reasoning and the next few weeks brought nothing so the world started to relax again. After all, the Red Star was clearly receding and there couldn't be Thread without the rogue planet. They would never have had the technology or astrological understanding to know that the fiery explosion that could be easily seen near the dwindling Red Star could very well be the end of Pernese civilization._


	2. Chapter 1

"H'yu are you really sure about these two?"

There was an audible sigh that bronzerider H'yu, Weyrlingmaster of Southern Weyr didn't bother to try to hide, even in the presence of his Weyrwoman. Even for a man of his patience, it was impossible to keep his irritation at bay during these meetings. "Viranna, if you want me to fill the sands you need to stop questioning every decision I make about these candidates. Would you rather there not be enough to stand for Shevath's eggs?" Despite this being the exact same flow of conversation that they seemed to have every time there were new candidates brought in, the goldrider still drew herself in anger at his tired and bored-sounding tone. H'yu was honestly past caring about offending her at this point; the woman was making his life pure misery over this clutch. Not that Viranna was ever an easy person to deal with exactly, and H'yu could understand the stress over these eggs, but H'yu was at his wit's end with trying to keep the goldrider happy.

"Look," he said after taking a deep breath to try to keep his voice calm. "There's really not much we can do about it. We need the candidates, even if they wouldn't be our first choice. I'm sure you don't want to risk not having a lifemate there for any of Shevath's hatchlings?" It was an argument that seemed almost daily at this point, but for some reason Viranna needed to hear it over and over to keep her pretty blonde head into the task at hand. Which, of course, was to make sure every new dragon impressed. It was not common for a hatchling to fail to find a suitable lifemate, but the one occasion Southern had been witness to it was enough to do everything to make sure it never happened again. They might not adore and champion for every single person to stand for the eggs, but these could be worked with and shaped to be what the Weyr needed. A dead dragon could not be.

Viranna was silent for a long moment before grunting in an irritated acknowledgement and waving a dismissive hand at him. "Fine, fine. I defer to your judgement," was all to be said of that (which H'yu took as a thorough warning that they have _better_ __be up to snuff). "Keep them to the back."

Over the years 'keep them to the back' had become synonymous with 'try not to let them impress'. It was where newer and younger candidates tended to be pushed to and there was a distinct hierarchy imposed by the more dominant boys and girls. Being closer to the eggs didn't always mean someone was more likely to impress, but there was a stronger trend of success by proximity. Less desirable options were always kept to the very back of the sands and the experienced candidates made sure it stayed that way.

"I want that other holdless boy you picked up kept away as well," the Weyrwoman added with clear contempt.

H'yu nodded. Zakhol had been found by a rider a few weeks prior and he'd had to fight for the lad to even be allowed to stay in the Weyr. Viranna did not trust anyone that came from the outskirts of what she thought was proper civilization and honestly didn't think they were worthy of her dragon's eggs. The two new boys, Kalari and Kobi seemed to have come from very similar situations, though both were in considerably worse condition. The bronzerider made a note to recruit Zakhol to help to the boys settle into Weyr-life.

Honestly, H'yu wasn't against these boys standing. They might not fit the sort of picture that many painted of what they wanted excellent candidates to look like, but there was something to be said about some scrawny kids having the tenacity to survive. They obviously came with some common sense and good instincts, which were things you really couldn't teach a person and H'yu would rather a dragon pick lads with that over someone with notable bloodlines. Propriety could be taught, but having a good head on your shoulders tended to come naturally.

This argument wouldn't go anywhere with Viranna though, so H'yu would do as the Weyrwoman asked. If a baby dragon really wanted one of these kids then it would find him. "I have a few brought in from the Hold," he said, happy to change the subject as he went down the list of new candidates. "There's a couple of promising craft-bred boys, Severoln and Bogaral are both senior apprentices and have solid leadership. Radameej is one of Lady Annashay's nephews. He's one of the young ones and bit excitable, but his brother Joredar seems to keep him well in line." H'yu scanned the page to be sure he hadn't missed anyone before pushing the list across the desk in front of him. "Still no new females for the gold egg to add unfortunately, but we have a solid number of the Weybred girls."

Viranna frowned. "Well, there's still three weeks until the eggs hatch. I'd really like a few more girls to stand, so make sure your searchriders are getting out as much as possible. I want to look over the newest arrivals this afternoon and you may as well have them checked by the healers at the same time."

H'yu nodded. "I'll make sure V'lada gets them all looked over," he assured her and pushed himself out of the chair, sensing a dismissal was imminent. V'lada was one of his assistants and was actually the one who was more in charge of the candidates, but Viranna had a hard time dealing directly with a greenrider who held rank. It rubbed her the wrong way apparently, but H'yu was more than allowed to appoint his own assistants and the man was excellent with the candidates. Viranna was grudging about it, but didn't make too much of a fuss as long as H'yu dealt with her on everything himself.

The bronzerider didn't miss the scowl in response to this, but he couldn't help but take a jibe at her when he could. "I'll have the reports from the healers by the end of tomorrow on this bunch," he said with a nod and swiftly exited the office. It wasn't even midday and he was already tempted to find something very strong to put in his klah just to get through the rest of it.

 _Pyrakkath, can you tell Kovalth that I need V'lada to gather the new candidates after lunch? And I need Zakhol to meet me in my office right away, please._ He could have just as easily gone to find his assistant, but using their dragons to relay the message meant that he would have just a little more time to himself before having to deal with Zakhol; the boy was a snotty and insolent thing that tended to require as much patience as Viranna did.


	3. Chapter 2

The lad in question was in fact about three words away from punching one of the new candidates in the mouth. Except that even the ex-holdless kid hesitated a bit before hitting a girl.

"The fuck you doing here?" he hissed, dragging Kalari away from the dining hall by the arm, despite the other's protests. Zakhol didn't stop until the two of them were far out of earshot of anyone before turning Kalari to face him. "You are one damn fool idiot, you know that? You bring Kobi here too?" His question was answered when he saw a familiar head of hair weaving its way towards them through the lunch crowd.

Kalari smirked, shaking off the boy's grip. "We're here for dragons, just the same as you. Well, and to have some regular meals. I'm sick of starving."

"Then you're dumber than I thought." Because there was one gaping hole in this particular plan: Kalari and Kobi were both girls. Zakhol eyed Kalari critically, trying to look at her from a stranger's point of view. The get up was perfectly passable as far as he could tell and it was unlikely anyone would be able to make any clear guess that the skinny fellow in front of him who appeared to be about fourteen was actually a young woman of seventeen. Her little sister was even easier to hide, the twelve-turn old being perfectly androgynous in her youth. It wasn't the worst plan ever and he knew the girls had their reasons for running around hiding out as boys, but Zakhol also knew that it wouldn't work for long.

"Problem one," he said haughtily and was rewarded with a slightly panicked look from the girl as he went on: "one of the first things you've gotta do is a physical with the healers. Number two is that there's only one dragon out there for girls. You can't both have the gold one, y'know."

Kobi had finally found her way over and edged in behind her older sister before sticking her tongue out at Zakhol. "Wrong! We heard rumours that some girls up north got themselves on green dragons."

"Rumours pipsqueak," Zakhol shot back, though he was a bit intrigued by this information. Likely it wasn't true at all; girls just didn't impress anything but gold and that's how it was. "Anyway, it's not like hiding out there." This was accompanied by a vague gesture to everything that wasn't the Weyr. "Someone's going to figure you out, probably sooner than later and then they won't trust ya to get near the eggs. It's a dumb plan. How come you didn't tell them you're girls?"

Kalari shrugged, looking mutinous and nervous. "Habit?" she admitted finally, though Zakhol knew her history enough to guess that there was plenty more to it than that and likely it was related to their father.

Sighing, the boy slumped against the cool stone of the corridor they'd ended up in. "Alright, fine. You guys are fucking dumb as rocks, but too late to fix that now if you wanna shot at the egg. Lucky for you I can help you out. Mostly you just need to get past the healer inspection and then the rest should be easy enough, 'specially if we can get you bunked with me." If he was honest, Zakhol was excited by the challenge of the charade and it would give him a chance to test out the connections he'd made in the Weyr so far. "You're gonna owe me though Kalari."

Whatever she'd been about to say in return was cut off when one of the younger candidates poked his head around the corner. "Oi, V'lada's looking for you Zak. And you new guys are supposed to meet in classroom A after lunch, okay?"

Zakhol nodded, waving the kid away. "Just keep your heads down," he warned. If they were careful enough they could probably get away with it and he was looking forward to making it all work, more for his own personal satisfaction than anything. Besides, imagine if one of them impressed the gold? The looks on these Weyrfolks' faces when a 'boy' took the queen would be worth all of the work. Past that he wasn't too sure, though. He really doubted this idea spreading around that girls were impressing to greens now and he didn't know what would happen to the girls after the hatching, but that was a ways off. For now they'd focus on getting them through to hatching day and then figure the rest out from there.

"An' don't you screw it up with your big mouth," he told Kalari, knowing her tendency to be stupidly hot-headed. She glared and took a half-hearted swipe at him that he easily dodged. "The food's good," he added, "but try not to eat too much too fast. I puked three days in a row when I got here. See you later."

He spotted AWLM V'lada scanning the dining hall and quickly dodged out of sight. Before he got pulled into whatever it was that the greenrider wanted he had a quick stop in the infirmary to see a particular healer that owed him a favour.


	4. Chapter 3

Later that evening Kalari was unpacking her very meagre belongings into a storage chest that made the number of items look pathetically small. Maybe it was better just to keep them all on her person, she thought with a frown as she examined the chest. It clearly wasn't built to keep any sneaking thieves out of her things with barely more than a frail latch and nothing anywhere near a lock. Were these fools so damn trusting that they didn't even protect their belongings from each other?

"Oh lighten up Kalari," came her sister's high voice from the bed next to her. She looked at the younger girl, who was grinning over with that knowing look. Kalari scowled. The kid could read her like a book and it grated at her to no end. "It's not out _there,_ you know. Anyway, nobody wants your stupid junk."

"Screw off," Kalari snapped even more annoyed when she just got an amused giggle in reply. _Brat_ , she thought though not without some fondness. She really did love the kid more than anything else. "These people are so rich they don't have to worry about a thing? Well, we're gonna have some that kiddo. I'm fucking done being poor and hungry all the time." Kobi could act all innocent and cute, but Kalari could see the gleam of greed in her brown eyes too. They both knew the Weyr held the sort of wealth for them that never could have dreamed of before, and even more importantly there was _safety_ here.

Kobi chuckled and turned back to unpacking her own few possessions. "Do you think Dad will find us here?" she asked softly after a few moments. The worry in her voice was obvious and not unfounded.

"If he does it won't be fast enough." Kalari's response was scathing, but not towards her sister. She glanced over and, catching the anxiety on Kobi's face, scooted over to putting a reassuring hand on the kid's bony shoulder. "Don't worry. It's only a couple of weeks 'til hatching and then one of us will have a shiny gold dragon that will make sure Garwaln doesn't mean shit. 'Sides, he's going to have a hard time finding his daughters when we're boys, eh?" She gave one of the dirty blond strands on Kobi's head a tug and smiled. "We're good here. Just don't screw up and give us away."

Kobi batted the hand away and stuck her tongue out. "You mean when I get that gold?" she teased.

Kalari just grinned in reply and went back to her cot. The kid didn't know that out of the two of them she was desperately hoping for Kobi to impress the queen and have the permanent protection of the Weyr at her back. Maybe it wouldn't help Kalari if their father did manage to track them down (and he was a crafty man who likely would find them eventually), but at least Kobi would be alright. Kalari knew she could handle going back out on her own if she needed to, but her sister was still a child essentially and didn't deserve having to live that life again.

" _I'd flay the skin from your back if it didn't make so many marks for me," Garwaln had snarled at her, reeking strongly of cheap Southern rum. "You go and find that little shit and both of you get back here. She's twelve now, it's time to start earning her keep." Kalari had hit him soundly across the jaw at the point. "You sick fucking bastard." He was too drunk to do much but spit and curse at her as she'd turned her back on him._

It was dangerous out on their own, but it would better than staying and they'd left that evening without a backwards glance. It was incredibly fortunate for them to have been near Southern Hold when the dragons went out on search after spending nearly a month only just surviving. Dragons were the last thing on either of their minds, but the safety of the Weyr was enough to agree to anything the riders told them.

She hadn't expected to see any familiar faces at Southern Weyr but in the few days following their arrival she'd been immensely grateful for Zakhol's presence. The boy was an annoying asshole, but he was useful and without him they wouldn't have made it through something as simple as passing the healer's exams. She hated owing anyone anything, especially an arrogant snot like Zakhol, but it was better than being out on their asses.

"You about done there? It'll be dinner soon."

Kobi frowned, looking thoroughly unenthusiastic. "Already? I'm still full…"

With a snort Kalari pushed herself to her feet. "Then we'll just go for dessert and check out the other candidates, yeah? Be good to see who we're up against for that gold."


	5. Chapter 4

With less than a week to go until hatching the teaching staff were finally able to start winding down and relaxing just a little bit. By this point decisions on who was acceptable to stand for the eggs and who wasn't were already pretty much decided as well as what placement on the sands they'd earned in their time there. Truthfully they couldn't afford to cut many of the candidates; there were simply too many eggs and not enough young people to give them an appropriate selection. There were always going to be a couple that couldn't be allowed to go on, but they were allowing far more through than they normally would.

At least by now they were as good as they were going to be and everyone could take a bit of a breath. There was little else they could do to get them in better shape and they could try to cram more information into their heads, but they'd learned that most things taught in the last couple of days tended to be quickly lost. As strict as the Southern Weyr candidate program was, even they knew better than to try to push it much in the final week. Now the candidates were allowed a bit of hard-earned rest. Lessons and physical work was reduced, though they were expected to keep up with their chore groups. It was generally a relatively kind time to the young men and women that would be crapping themselves with nervousness as hatching day approached.

"Alright, what have you got for me Ruxa?" It was a fond nickname that only family and close friends generally used and one V'lada only brought out when he was alone with his son. It wasn't quite appropriate to be on such familiar terms around the other candidates or staff, especially as they already had to be careful about folk worrying about the greenrider's children getting special favours.

The young man smiled and slid a small stack of hides across the desk. "There's a lot of new faces this time and much of the rest is the same as last hatching." It had been over a turn ago since the last eggs had hatched, but the hierarchy in the candidate barracks hadn't changed around too much in the interim. Varuxan tended to keep things regular and didn't much like things changing around without solid reason. "Although Zaravay's really matured, he should be moved up with us this time I think. Irlyan has done pretty good as well, the kid's finally coming out of his shell a bit."

V'lada nodded, spotting the names on the list and noting they were recommended to stand up in the first row with the other lads who'd earned the right. You had to work hard to be allowed right in the inner ring of candidates when the eggs hatched. "I see you've got the two Smith guys there as well. The other weyrborn boys alright with that?"

"Severon and Bogaral worked their rears off," Varuxan said firmly, clearly not giving any room to question his decision. "Bogaral especially has earned the respect of the boys, he's a ridiculously patient man. I can see him with a brown easily."

V'lada tipped his head to acknowledge his son's authority. "You know it's mostly your call, it's just my job to get this approved by the Weyrwoman. Well, it's H'yu's job anyway," he added with a wry grin. "Tell me about the new guys, how are they settling in?" V'lada already knew pretty clearly what was going on in his barracks, but it always helped to have a more inside perspective. If there was anything else Varuxan could add before they pushed these lads through, V'lada would take it.

Varuxan shrugged. "As well as can be expected, I guess. Funny enough everyone is giving the twins from the North more of a hard time than the holdless kids. I think Zakhol has something to do with them leaving Kalari and Kobi alone, but they keep to themselves pretty well. I think they're more concerned with fattening up a bit than causing trouble," he said, chuckling. "Ralgile and Ralglan have finally accepted that they're right at the bottom and seem to be starting to make friends a bit."

"Those are the ones that got here a few months ago, right? Got their asses handed to them for picking on Vinnicor?" V'lada had been thoroughly amused when the lads from Fort Weyr had targeted his youngest son. Nico was the baby of the barracks, an endearing kid who'd been pushed through a bit early with a couple of the other promising weyrbrats when they realized how many hatchlings they'd have to find partners for. With his two elder brothers and over half of the barracks looking out for him, nobody laid a hand on Vinnicor without greatly regretting it.

"Vakaylian was furious that he missed out on laying in a couple of hits on the guys," Varuxan said. "I think they're still terrified of him."

That was all to the good, V'lada thought. Vakaylian could be short-tempered, but he did a good job making sure everyone stayed in line. They were lucky that it was him and not Varuxan; the older lad didn't often get involved in those sorts of things, but when he did the targets would regret their lives up until that point. That was the great thing about having strong boys at the head of the candidates because it meant that much less work for V'lada to do. "Ladukarn still hasn't moved up?"

Varuxan shook his head, looking down at the page with obvious scorn. "He's doing just enough to keep on the sands, but if there were more options I'd turf him. Still, he hasn't been in a fight for over three weeks and he's been looking out for Radameej. Not that I want a guy like that as someone Rad looks to, but it's better than nothing I guess." Radameej was a thoughtless and impatient sort of boy that had a hard time focusing on much of anything. At the very least Ladukarn inspired him for some reason and he was getting his work done.

"Well, that's a start I guess. Ladukarn might only have a couple more clutches before he'd too old, so we won't have to worry about him for too much longer." V'lada would happy to see the back of the fellow, but he was a relative of the Lord Holder so they needed a good reason to kick him out. Something that Ladukarn knew very well and had gotten especially good about toeing the line. "Any thoughts about the girls?"

"Nah, not a ton. Avilla is still the favourite for gold, but I'm still sure that's because everyone is scared of her mother." Weyrwoman Viranna /was/ a frightening person to cross and she wouldn't have been happy to think that her own daughter wasn't everyone's first choice to impress the gold egg. "Shorlin is still well-liked also. I'm not sure, she annoys the crap out of me." If Varuxan impressed his dragon this time he desperately hoped that the spoiled young woman wouldn't be the one at the head of their weyrling class. "I'd like to see one of the more docile girls, personally. We have enough strong female presence for one Weyr."

Laughing loudly, V'lada beamed at his son. The boy was going to make an excellent bronzerider! There was no question in it, though perhaps the greenrider was hoping to be able to live vicariously through his oldest child. "Yes well, not just anyone can handle a queen dragon. I think it's supposed to be in their blood to be bitchy." They shared a moment, both privately thinking awful things about the female leader of the Weyr and both knowing very well what the other was dwelling on. "This looks about what I would have gone with, I'll pass it on to H'yu. Thanks Ruxa, excellent work as always."

Varuxan nodded, knowing a polite dismissal when he saw one. "You'll finally have time for dinner with us then?" he asked as he rose smoothly from his chair. "I know Vinnicor has been missing you."

The greenrider was very glad to be able to nod. The time leading up to a hatching was so busy for him that he rarely saw his family despite most of them living in the barracks that he was in charge of. "Yes, I'll be there for the whole meal even," he told him with a cheeky wink. "Tell Gangafald I need to see him about his hidework again, will you?"

V'lada watched his boy leave, distracted away from dwelling on how much he wanted Gangafald to impress a dragon so that he could change that terrible name of his. He was proud of his children, at least for the most part anyway. Some had gone off to crafts which wasn't _awful_ exactly, but it didn't have the same pride as being a rider. There were a few of his hoard of offspring that weren't excelling as much, but they couldn't all be winners, he supposed. Varuxan especially showed solid potential, despite having failed to impress this far. The lad would get his dragon this time, as he deserved. V'lada was more of the belief that the dragons knew that Varuxan was needed to get the barracks up to standard before he could go off and be a weyrling. It would be good to see him finally get the dragon he'd worked to hard for.

The greenrider could have easily gotten lost in imagining the wonderful hatchlings that would find his boys (bronzes for his three favourites, of course), but a knock at the door pulled him back to the present. That would be H'yu to pick up the selection sheets, time to get back to work for another afternoon before he could start to relax for a couple of days.


	6. Chapter 5

The next six days went by as smoothly as anyone could hope. Aside from a brief scuffle between Zakhol and Zaravay (nothing new there) and one of the new holdless kids getting sick from sneaking and eating too many sweets, the barracks had stayed relatively quiet while everyone waited in tense anticipation for the eggs to hatch. Assistant Weyrling Master B'jarl was the first to know that there was any indication that the babies were ready to greet the world. The brownrider was one of the small handful in the Weyr that could hear any of the dragons and he was the most sensitive of them, so when the queens started murmuring amongst themselves, he heard and could discreetly prepare the rest of the staff. It was before dawn, an unholy hour for anyone to want to be awake and it was odd for this particular queen as her clutches generally liked to hatch in the heat of the afternoon. But dragons could be fickle things, even ones that hadn't even been hatched yet so when the mother began the gentle hum that would welcome her children the rest of the Weyr dutifully sprung into action.

First B'jarl contacted the dragons who partnered the riders that had organized the mass effort to bring in spectators from around the Weyr. His own dragon was just rousing as a full wing of riders hastily dressed and sent warnings out that they were on the way to pick up their passengers. He'd also already spoken with Holrenth, the elderly queen who'd retired early after a bad injury and her rider, Madrelle, now ran the Lower Caverns of the Weyr. Preparations for the extravagant breakfast that would serve as a celebratory feast in honour of the new weyrlings would be well underway before the candidates even got onto the sands.

As he got into his office he could hear V'lada's voice booming down the corridor as he lustily woke the candidates. He might feel bad for the way they regularly were roused if it weren't so damn funny to watch V'lada scare them out of their skins in the morning. Today they'd have time for a quick and simple breakfast that would be on the way from the kitchens now and would get changed into the traditional attire before being ushered to the Hatching Ground. While V'lada was herding the candidates B'jarl and H'yu would make sure that the staff in charge of setting up the hatchling's first meal were well organized before heading to meet with the Weyrleaders before the babies broke shell. Any final instructions would be given and then they could settle in to watch.

Which was where B'jarl's real job would begin. The nice thing about having someone who could hear-all-dragons on the teaching staff was that he could sneak in and hear tidbits from the young dragons that would help them assess the new pairs, as well as have a better insight about what was going on throughout training. B'jarl loved it. Dragons were endlessly fascinating creatures and they became more interesting the younger they got. Newly hatched beasts were hands down the most entertaining thing in the Weyr. (Though many of the new weyrlings didn't appreciate this in the same way as baby dragons didn't tend to have much in the way of brain-to-thought filters and were horrid for sharing things the human partners would rather keep private. But such was the life of a weyrling.) More importantly it was his job to keep an ear out for anything of note that could indicate problems with a particular pair.

Staying a few steps back while H'yu spoke with the Weyrleaders, B'jarl looked over the nervous young people that were clustered the at entrance to the hatching grounds. Some thought he had an unfair advantage and wasn't allowed in the betting pools, but he liked to make his own private guesses. Like everyone else, he favoured Viranna's daughter for the queen especially as the girl was a much mellower temperament than her mother. He knew he wasn't the only person that would like to see the next generation of riders headed by someone with a more level head on their shoulders. There were a wide handful of boys that would do well impressing bronzes and ones that would compliment Avilla well.

The brownrider didn't put too much into any of his choices though. Better than many, he knew how unpredictable the dragon could be and he'd yet to see any real solid pattern to be able to determine what qualities a hatchling looked for in a person. They were their own creatures, each as unique and full of personality as their human partners and he'd been surprised right now to the last second before they made their choice, even as someone who was listening in on them as they searched through the candidates.

 _It begins,_ came the brief warning from the golden mother just moments before a resounding crack signalled the beginning of the hatching. There was a hushed tension as the first egg broke open, then a murmur of disappointment when the crowd got a good look at the hatchling. B'jarl heard the dragons muttering amongst themselves as well and he sent thoughts of reassurance to Shevath. _Its a strong-looking green_ , he told the queen, though he only got a humph in response. Though a green hatched first was never thought to be good luck, this little one was well-built and decisive in her actions as she moved to pick a boy out of the crowd.

 _You don't get a choice in this, so don't be such a little bitch about it and get to feeding me. I'm Tungrith and now you are Z'vay. Suck it up._ B'jarl nearly choked. Faranth, where did some of these babies even get some of the things they said? This thing was barely thirty seconds in the world and it had picked that up somewhere along the way. He'd have to let V'lada know that his candidates clearly had fowl little minds. He was surprised that Zaravay had been picked by a green and he knew the hot-headed lad wouldn't be pleased, but this Tungrith seemed up to the challenge of handling him.

Several other eggs had cracked by this point and the sands suddenly seemed very full of gangling hatchlings. He saw a bronze go to Dalnomar; not much of a surprise there, though B'jarl had pegged him for a brown initially. Immediately after he saw a second bronze charging through the crowd of boys, scattering them and bodily chose Ladukarn and B'jarl found himself wishing a stronger personality than Dalnomar would be at the head of the class. Ladukarn - or L'duka, as the second bronze was very loudly proclaiming - was not anyone's first choice in a ranking position and someone like Varuxan would have been better to help control him.

It was very quickly getting harder to keep up with everything and B'jarl had to resort to simply scanning over the group for anything that might stand out. He saw the twins go to a pair of handsome blues and Severon was claimed by an odd-looking and clearly overly hyper little brown. B'jarl frowned, glad he hadn't placed the bets he would have made; he would have pegged Severon for a blue. And now here was Bogaral impressing a green. Yes, it was very good he hadn't made any real bets this time around, already he would have owed far too many marks.

"Oh shards, V'lada won't be happy," H'yu said, interrupting his thoughts as the bronzerider gestured towards the very middle of the sands where Varuxan was kneeling next to a sagely blue dragon. B'jarl grimaced, though he knew his own disappointment wouldn't be anywhere near V'lada's. "Handsome thing though, isn't he?"

B'jarl nodded and opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by a loud voice that was an unmistakable bellow from Vakaylian.

"No fucking way!"

Turning in surprise, B'jarl saw the young man bodily pushing a green away from him. Or he was trying to, rather. The lanky green had simply gone limp and Vakaylian was having a hard time getting her to move off of his feet. At first he wondered if the green was injured, but even from his spot on the other side of the Grounds he could feel the amusement from the hatchling. _Chill out, will you? No really man, you'll get over it._

It didn't look like Vakaylian would; the guy seemed ready to punch the hatchling right in her smug face. After a long, tense moment he grunted and stalked angrily off towards the feeding tables with the green slouching along behind him. B'jarl didn't miss the very brief caress the new weyrling had for his dragon, despite his reaction. "Well, we're in for it this time. Vakaylian and Ladukarn already hate each other," B'jarl commented.

H'yu nodded, already looking weary. "It's going to be a long two turns. Maybe I should hire more staff…"

"Especially if we also have to deal with V'lada after all of this. He's probably shitting hims-" B'jarl cut off abruptly, cocking his head to the side and listening hard.

 _Yes Avilla, I'm very sure! Why wouldn't I be?_

There was ripple of excitement running through the crowd that was close enough to the side of the sands where the female candidates were waiting for the gold egg to hatch, with some folk standing and craning to see. B'jarl would have been annoyed at the shrieks of protest of some of the girls if he hadn't been just as shocked. "Well I'll be damned."

A small green was nosing at the hem of Avilla's robes, very obviously looking to the woman and had been the feminine voice he'd heard. The Weyrwoman's daughter had been chosen by a green and was looking a mixture of ashen-faced fear and sheer joy. As if emboldened by the first hatchling's decision a second, more tentative green had followed and had shyly chosen Taddin, another of the female candidates.

 _Endemeth?!_ B'jarl was fascinated even as he was looking over the two greens with a critical eye. It was automatic to assume that there was perhaps something wrong with these two as he would anytime a hatchling made any sort of questionable choice.

His own dragon was just as interested in the situation, the brown eagerly peering down at the two women. _They were welcoming, while the other girl's were not. We choose what is open to us and they were a better fit than the boys available. I look forward to working with them!_

This was possibly the deepest insight into the mystery of a dragon's choice at hatching than B'jarl had ever been privy to, but when he pressed his brown further he got little more than feelings of love and affections with the common assurance that 'we know what we know'. Well, it was something. It seemed in this circumstance gender was not the priority. If there wasn't an appropriate fit, these two greens had looked for an open mind rather than not find a match?

However he knew this wasn't going to be any sort of argument that their Weyrwoman would care about, B'jarl realized with a grimace when he caught a glance of Viranna's reaction to this development. The woman was staring down at her daughter with a look of pure disgust and disappointment and his heart went out to the girl. At least she would have a companion with her, a strong and confident green from the looks of it that would help her chosen through the inevitable fallout.

 _Yes. That is really most interesting. Perhaps I shall have one myself. These boys are horribly uncouth, heathens the lot of them. It's unusual you say Endemeth?_ B'jarl's attention was caught by a decidedly masculine voice and his eyes fell on a monster of a blue hatchling who was looking over the female candidates thoughtfully. _No, it's fine none of these are right. There is one… like these but not. See how afraid they are? They don't want to be different like Socith's and Ephrenith's chosen._ The blue turned away from the group of women, who were all huddled as far from the cluster of eggs as if this would stop a green from picking one of them. Instead he plodded over to the back edge of the sands and pushed his big, blocky head into the torso of one of the holdless boys. _Kalari?_

B'jarl frowned, trying to make sense of the what the hatchling had been saying. Like these but not? More than anything, the look that Zakhol was giving the other boy made the man suspicious. Whatever was going on, the holdless kid was so distracted that he didn't noticed a bronze awkwardly trying to get his attention until the creature was basically on top of him. Something wasn't right here at all...

 _Focus now, worry later,_ his dragon suggested, the brown still curiously eyeing this last pair as Kalari lead the blue off of the sands. _Vinnicor impresses!_

B'jarl turned, trying to pick the young boy out of the crowd and was delighted to see the lad with a pale brown at his side. That was a welcome sight, even if the boy was a little young for the sands. He was a clever fellow that was generally quite well liked; he could go far in the class. A pair of the other younger candidates impressed soon after with the very flamboyant Radameej surprising them by impressing blue rather than the green they'd thought he would.

And then, of course, all else was shadowed as the golden egg suddenly split. "Taking her sweet time, huh?" B'jarl said to H'yu, nodding towards the ring of girls that suddenly became hushed with anxiety while they watched a delicate little queen pick her way out of the ruins of her shell. Every eye in the Cavern turned and many held their breath as the girls tensely waited.

 _No, unfortunately not,_ B'jarl heard the queen say after she'd looked over the first young woman. _There is another._ She took her time, carefully inspecting each girl presented to her, even though B'jarl could sense she'd already chosen. This was promising behaviour! Even freshly hatched this baby was showing fairness, dignity and propriety, which was a shame that she hadn't gone to Avilla. It would have been a good partnership, and B'jarl was surprised when the queen finally stopped in front of Shorlin. As he often did, he wondered what these creatures saw in their chosen riders that the rest of the world could not.

Endemeth hummed happily. _We see what we see and we know what we know,_ he told his rider sagely.

 _Well you're no help,_ B'jarl replied with an affectionate glance up to the ledge where his brown was watching from. _Looks like we're almost done…_

After the queen had impressed the rest of the hatching moved along quickly, but still with a few more surprises along the way. Malanen and Javriel both went to greens one after another, which was a bit disappointing. They were both good and solid lads that would have been more useful with some rank behind them. B'jarl sighed heavily. One of the only candidates he'd guessed right this time around was Mataias, who was the sort that couldn't possibly impress anything but a green.

Within a few more moments that noise of the hatching dwindled and the last baby dragon had picked his partner. The crowd gave a lusty applause and there was plenty of marks changing hands even as everyone began to file out, but most of the talk was of the two girls impressing to green dragons. There would be about a half an hour before breakfast was served to the masses, but the Dining Hall would already be set up with klah for the guests. B'jarl actually preferred a morning hatching over one that was later in the day. Usually by the afternoon most of the crowd would have headed back to their homes and the Wey could take the rest of the day to relax. An evening affair tended to end up with too many people drinking too much wine and many feeling awful the next day. If he was lucky he and the other staff would get much of the afternoon off while the new weyrlings recovered from the hatching.

Beside him, H'yu suddenly swore colourfully and looked at him with a pained expression. "Shards, I think I'll retire, you're Weyrlingmaster as of right now," he joked, even though he looked like he wished he could do just that. "Viranna summons 'the useless asshole that ruined everything with his shitty candidates', as Shevath put it." Sighing, he clapped B'jarl on the shoulder. "Go on to the weyrlings and make sure they get settled. If I survive this I'll see you at the feast."

B'jarl really didn't want to have to make H'yu's life any worse at that moment, but it was his job to let the man know about anything going on with the weyrlings and he was starting to have some suspicions. "There's something off about Kalari, H'yu. I… I think he might actually be a girl."

The Weyrlingmaster started, his brow wrinkling as he tried to a place dragons to the kid. "No, he got a blue. Right? And he can't be, the healers would have known." He started to grin, because obviously this was a joke.

B'jarl shook his head slowly. "I can't confirm, but something isn't sitting right and the way that blue was talking... And you should have seen Zakhol's eyes bugging out when Kalari impressed; the kid knows something."

There was a strained silence as H'yu tried to digest this, then the colour drained a little from his face. "Well. Fuck. Keep this to yourself for now, we'll look into it later. There's enough I have to answer for already without bloody cross-dressing candidates. If Zakhol knows something maybe get to him right away and make sure nothing gets out if you're right about this."


	7. Chapter 6

Kobi was trying her best not to look upset when she saw her sister making her way over, but it hard to keep her smile from wavering. As much as she wanted to be happy for Kalari all she could think about was the prospect of going back to the candidate barracks alone, but at least she could be grateful the woman flopped into the seat next to her without so much as a grin.

"Hey kid."

Kobi scowled, jabbing her fork at the meager pile of food in front of her. She felt bad and she could see that her sister was trying so hard to keep somber for her benefit, but this only made her feel a bit better. It's not like Kalari had _asked_ for everything to happen this way, and even a couple of kids from the outskirts of society knew that the dragons made the choices. It was way out of their own control and they just had to accept that.

The girl sighed heavily and pushed her food away. "This sucks," she said and was annoyed that her emotions showed a bit through her tone. It was harder to keep herself together when Kalari threw an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a tight hug.

"I'm sorry Kobs."

Really there wasn't much to say past that; they both knew that this was possibly the least ideal outcome of the hatching. Neither of the had the gold dragon that was meant to save them; if anything they were in a worse position than they were before. Leaving the Weyr wasn't an option and while the weyrlings were heavily guarded, Kobi was just a candidate and much more with reach for certain outside parties that were out there looking for them. She wasn't going to leave her sister and even the most self-sufficient twelve-turn old was still only twelve, so she was in a position of just waiting for their father to track her down.

It wasn't just tough for her, Kalari, who would now be known as K'lari was in for a hard ride. "They don't really know what to do with me," she admitted a while later. "For now they're just going to be a bit strategic about it and keep it all a secret, at least until the rest of the bullshit has calmed down some. Sadly, hiding out as a boy for now is the easier option."

Kobi grinned, reaching out to give her sister's hand a squeeze. "Least you'll be suffering too. Asshole." It was mostly a joke, Kobi wasn't really the most vindictive type and she couldn't actually stay mad. It wasn't even a matter of being angry, she was really happy for Ka - K'lari and she could hide the overwhelming feeling of lonely sadness for now. It was easy enough to pretend it didn't exist, especially when she was able to hear about the dragon that was now a part of their family. "Hey at least Zak is there with you, huh? He'll be able to help?"

K'lari snorted. "Oh he's loving the fuck out of this. I mean, I don't give a damn if people know I'm a girl, but he's got a whole lot to hold over the heads of the people here because _they_ don't want anyone to know. Between that and a bronze dragon, well he's set up for some cushy life. I think he thinks he owes me a bit for it though, he's getting a shit ton more by having to help cover this up than any dragon ever would. Anyway, kiddo, he's got a buddy in the barracks that'll watch your back too."

There was a bit of a pause, a moment where they both silently acknowledged the new space between them and the hurt that came with knowing that Kobi had a long wait before there would be more eggs. Still, the two soldiered on through the meal, spending as long together as they could before the weyrlings were ushered away to begin their long segregation from the Weyr population. And Kobi marched sullenly back to a painfully quiet barracks with the handful of remaining candidates.


	8. Chapter 7

Despite the relative success of the hatching and extravagance of the feast the followed, the Weyrling staff were in painfully low spirits when they met in H'yu's office later that afternoon. Their charges were dozing and lulling in the hot sun just outside of the barracks under the watchful eyes of the adult dragons. Many of the human halves had brought out their bed furs to spread on the ground and were taking the time to relax with their new friends. It would be the last time for a while that they wouldn't have any obligations to take up just about every minute of their days, so they were enjoying this afternoon while they could.

H'yu hadn't hesitated in bringing out a bottle of strong southern rum to share with his assistants. His meeting with the Weyrleaders had gone about as well as expected and the staff was all going to suffer for it, but V'lada in particular was in Viranna's line of sights. H'yu had to fight hard to keep the woman from ejecting the greenrider right out of the Weyr and had barely managed to get her to allow him to stay on his staff under probationary terms. He was thoroughly grateful that he'd opted not to mention the potential situation with K'lari at this point, it was possible they'd all have been staked out for Thread instantly.

To Viranna the hatching was a complete disaster and though she blamed all three of the weyrlingmasters, she was convinced it was V'lada's personal fault that things had gone the way they did. 'That's what you get for putting a fucking greenrider in charge of anything,' she'd spat, looking ready to hit H'yu for daring to hire such a person into such an important role.

The three men were fuming when H'yu laid out the terms the Viranna had set down. V'lada wasn't to work with the candidates any longer and wasn't going to be allowed to do so much as breathe without a 'proper' rider supervising him. Which would mean doubling up on work that normally only required one person. "I'll have to bring someone else onto the staff," H'yu admitted, though he was nervous about bringing another personality in that could mess with the well-functioning team he'd created. "Viranna wants a bronzerider, though we might have to try to dig up a decent brown. I can't think of any bronzers I want to have to deal with on a daily basis. Ideally we can throw in this person to 'shadow' you V'lada. You can train him, but we can make it look like he's 'watching over you'. Shards, that fool woman doesn't realize how badly we don't need to deal with this shit right now."

That was the understatement of the turn. After looking through the breakdown of the class they were faced with, the three were not looking forward to the issues that were bound to come up. It was inevitable that there were going to be teenagers that didn't get along, that was normal, but they didn't often have the sort of rivalries that there were between some of the weyrlings that had. There was also always going to be a couple that had impressed differently than they'd hoped and would need help dealing with it, but they'd never had something quite on the scale of Z'vay and V'kayli. And certainly not in the same group together.

Folk really didn't realize the difficulties of wrangling a group kids in these age ranges. New weyrlings were mostly teenagers with a smattering of young adults and children thrown into the mix, which meant that not only did they have to train them to be riders, but they were also essentially babysitters of a bunch of hormonal time bombs. H'yu had strongly petitioned for a woman to be added to the staff as a motherly figure for the boys, someone to help with the messy problems that grown men really just didn't want to have to face. This request, unfortunately, had always been turned down even though it really would have made everyone's lives easier.

Oh, and then there was that other little issue.

They chatted and meandered around the thing for a good half an hour before V'lada finally got fed up. "Alright. So what the fuck is going to happen with the girls?" he blurted, clearly glad to have something to vent his frustration and he looked distinctly uncomfortable at the whole situation. "This isn't right, women don't belong on fighting dragons! I like Avilla as much as the next person, but are they going to be allowed to get away with this?"

B'jarl snorted, subtly avoiding making eye contact with H'yu. They both had decided it was better for everyone to leave V'lada out of the loop when it came to K'lari. The poor man had enough to deal with right now. "It's not exactly their fault or anything we can undo. Besides, we all know there's more than a handful of the lads that will probably make these ladies regret this whole situation."

"Which we will have to be thoroughly on guard for," cautioned H'yu grimly. "I don't trust a lot of these boys and I don't care what's between their legs, we aren't going to lose any baby dragons over this. Our job is to keep everyone alive and healthy. We get them trained and then their wingleaders can decide what to do with them."

"Will they even be allowed into the wings? I know more than a few riders who wouldn't feel comfortable with a girl flying with them." Though V'lada tried to keep his own thoughts on this out of his voice, the man wasn't quite successful.

Shrugging, B'jarl reached to fill his glass again. "Will it really matter? The Pass will be done in three months. They'll be taught everything, but it's not like they will ever see thread. They'll be perfectly useless like the rest of us." He was joking mostly because he was one of the riders that was thoroughly looking forward to the end of thread. He'd gone through enough injuries and seen too many losses to crave after the continued glory of being a hero. He glanced over at V'lada, who looked sour at this. The greenrider was a restless sort and would have a hard time adjusting to life after being a fighter.

"You're right enough," H'yu put in before V'lada could open his mouth to start up the old argument. "Either way, it's not our problem. We'll get them through weyrlinghood and then pass them off to whoever gets to deal with them afterwards. The main focus is on their training and to keep them out of the public eye in the beginning. They'll have enough to deal with already." The first few months wouldn't be a problem as the weyrlings were kept secluded until the dragons and their bond with their riders was stable enough to move onto the next stage of training. For some this happened within a few sevendays, for others it took up to four months of work, but the average was two to three. Until that time they kept their charges away from the rest of the Weyr to focus on their training.

"They'll be moved in with Shorlin after we get everyone up to speed, there's plenty of room in the gold weyrling quarters. At least there's a private bath there so we won't have to worry about them rotating out with the boys. It might not be quite as much of a headache as it seems like, anyway," H'yu said wearily as if he was trying to convince himself of this and reached for the rum bottle. "And once this class is all grown up we can all look at retiring. I know I will be."

There were nods and murmurs of agreement around the table. Once the Pass ended the option to go and settle elsewhere was on everyone's minds. Someone like V'lada would likely be gone before the last strand of thread fell, forging his own way through the jungles of the south to find _something_ to keep his active self happy if he couldn't fight. B'jarl was looking forward to getting away from the constant chatter of the dragons for a while and H'yu was just plain tired. Even though he wasn't yet fifty the bronzerider had gone through what felt like three lifetimes worth of hard work for Southern Weyr. He would be more than happy to settle on a nice beach for the rest of his days.

Tipping the bottle to fill them all with another round, H'yu leaned back in his chair with a heavy sigh. "Well, we may as well enjoy the afternoon as much as we can. We'll get these things sorted out this evening. Until then, cheers fellows. Here's to surviving the next two turns together."


	9. Chapter 8

There had been some bitter battles between the Weyrs for the right to fight the last threadfall that they would see in their lifetime, and in the end they simply had to rotate out shorter shifts so that everyone who wanted it could have the honour of charring some of the last thread ever. It was decided that each Weyr would send two full wings to the fight with the Weyrleaders of each left to determine who would be included in these. Generally it was assumed that riders would earn their way into the honoured spots, though Ista and Telgar Weyr both went the route of a random lottery to be fair. Every adult goldrider would fly in the low altitude wing, more of an honour guard than anything; with more fighters than normal it was unlikely any thread would even get through the upper flights to them.

As far as threadfall went, it was likely the least uneventful one any of the Weyrs had seen in some time, to the point where many were disappointed. Perhaps they were expecting the Red Star to spit out some last horrible menace that they would all have to prove themselves against. One last attempt to rain terror down on Pern. Yet, if anything the dragonriders of Pern faced an easy final battle, one that the harpers of the time would have to artfully embellish to make it more interesting when the story was told to the next generations.

Regardless, when the leaders of the Weyrs met at the traditional Red Butte the atmosphere was triumphant and jubilant. They were done! Never again in their lifetime would they have to face pain and death from above and the riders could start looking to a life of relative peace.

"Boring as fuck though, wasn't it?" E'myn of High Reaches said with a broad grin as he strode over to greet the other Weyrleaders, stopping next to Ch'dor of Fort who was the youngest of them all and clapping the lad on the shoulder. "You did well!" There were murmurs of agreement all around and even those who weren't as friendly with Fort Weyr were in high enough spirits to share some love with the young man. Ch'dor had only won his way into leadership the month past and at just eighteen his confidence was not as strong as the others.

The blonde bronzerider beamed, brushing curls out of his eyes. "Thanks to the support of all of you," he said with a humble tilt of his head. It was hard not to like a man who was so earnest in his desire to do the best for his Weyr.

K'haln of Igen, a giant burly man in his thirties returned the grin. "And now you're rewarded with leading Fort into the Interval, you dog…"

There was a slight, but distinct separation of the Southern Weyrleaders from their fellows in the North, even though everyone was included in the celebration. Viranna was nobody's favourite goldrider, though at least a couple of the other Weyrwomen did their best to be polite. It was one of those things that was common at any leadership gathering that everyone overlooked for the sake of getting through meetings with everyone still left alive at the end. Still, despite the undertone of awkwardness between the North and South it was hard not to share in the success of each of the Weyrs.

Viranna had been watching the others though, her suspicion only barely hidden. She was waiting for the moment when they would all fall back apart into the bickering that was almost traditional at this point, especially now that they would have to start considering parcelling out land to the dragonriders who chose to settle out of the Weyrs. It had been a regular argument for the past two turns as they planned for the eventual end of thread. Naturally with the North being as crowded as it was and South with plenty of land to spare most of the Weyrs were looking to move to the warmer climate across the ocean to retire. Which was fair, by all rights. Folk were free to claim what land they chose, within reason, but none of the leaders of the Southern Continent were excited to see their land flooded with damned Northerners.

Just as predicted the topic was cautiously broached after they'd cheered themselves out, and Viranna noted the nervousness of the Igen Weyrwoman when she brought it up. _Good,_ she thought with satisfaction. They _should_ be nervous about it! They were all plotting their ways to invade the home that nobody liked until it was of use to them. Smirking slightly, the tall woman simply crossed her arms and waited as they carefully danced around the subject. So when her own Weyrleader cleared his throat and suggested that perhaps they should wait until the Conclave that would be held in two sevendays, Viranna was taken aback, and then quickly furious. How _dare_ he? The man was weak by nature and had no place making any sort of decisions.

This was gratefully accepted, of course, and the tension that had quickly risen dissipated. Nobody wanted a fight on this day. Even Viranna could grudgingly admit that she wasn't quite in the mood for a verbal Weyrleader brawl (and certainly not a physical one). Not yet anyway. She could wait for the Conclave where they would hole themselves up in that stuffy chamber and start hammering through the painful details of what life would look like for the Weyrs now. Not that they hadn't already started working through these things, but now it was _real_. Thread actually gone and now they had nothing to fight but each other.

Viranna reluctantly offered strained smiles and congratulations until she wanted to claw her eyes out, then she was pointedly glaring at her Weyrleader until the man politely excused them. Her expression as they bade farewell to the others was a very clear _we actually have things to be doing_ , though this was easily ignored. After all, they were the only ones who were trying not to be included in this celebration and they weren't going to stop being joyful on Viranna's account.

This wasn't missed by the woman and her mood was more than foul when they returned to Southern, this only made worse by the crowds of Weyrfolk waiting to herald their victory. At least the people of her home knew her, understood her and didn't take it personally that she didn't stick around. That was her Weyrleader's job, to make nice with the people while she actually ran the place.

 _Anything to report Shevath?_ The woman shrugged out of her riding leathers and began shedding the layers as quickly as she could as she made her way towards the bath. Well, she certainly wouldn't miss the stink that came with fighting Thread, nor the sore muscles after being astride and hefting a heavy tank of flammable chemicals. There was pause while her dragon reached out to the weyrling staff in particular and Viranna caught herself holding her breath. Shards she would be happy when this group graduated, they had been nothing but trouble and headaches since the day the eggs hatched

 _My children are doing well and their partners have not fought each other today,_ the gold responded with some amusement. _Endemeth calls today a massive success as well: Tungrith and her chosen have started speaking with each other again._

Viranna snorted. Thank Faranth for little victories perhaps. The Weyrwoman sunk into the steaming bath water with a grateful sigh and let her head fall back against the side. Not that she was an overly emotional woman by any stretch of the imagination, but she found herself surprised by a tightness in her chest as the stresses of the day slowly melted away with the warmth.

It was all finally over. They had survived the Pass with Southern coming through it all reasonably well. Not that it was an overly prosperous Weyr, especially not when compared to the wealth of Benden or the notoriety of Fort's fighters, but they had succeeded in keeping their culture and autonomy and now they had free reign over the land they'd settled. The North would come and fight for pieces of it, but none of them knew what it was to survive in the jungles, not the way the natives did. There was a fierce pride in how far the Weyr and the Holds that looked to it had come and it pained Viranna at how little this was recognized. They cooed over an eighteen year old Weyrleader who had done nothing, but they disdained after her despite the work she'd put into Southern.

Well, they would figure it out soon enough and she sure as fuck wouldn't be there to help when they came crying to her Weyr after the Southern wilds spat them all back out. How quickly their opinions of her would change then. Perhaps the time after Thread would be where she and the Weyr she worked so hard on would find the recognition they really deserved.


	10. Chapter 9

_Despite the joy at seeing the last of Thread, there was still some that couldn't shake the unease about something seeming not quite right. It was common enough knowledge that dragons instinctively laid less eggs when they weren't in a Pass; there were less of their population that would be lost and needed to be replaced during the peaceful Interval, so it was hard to feel entirely comfortable in their new way of life when the queens kept laying unnaturally large clutches of eggs. Yet over the next three months the Red Star continued to recede and there was no sign that they should be worrying. Perhaps the dragon's cycles simply needed time to adjust? After all, the records from the end of previous Pass could have been a little off and at times seemed a little bit vague, so it was possible that this was simply the way it went after Thread._

 _No one could ever understand how the dragons would know that something was wrong. Few would make the connection to that and the odd flash across the sky near the Red Star three months after the end of the Pass, certainly it wasn't a large enough occurrence to attract much attention aside from the handful who'd seen it clearly enough for it to be of interest. The first few months into the Interval were a bit odd and not quite what they were expecting exactly, but nothing about it could have given Pern any hint of what would happen in the days following what seemed like relatively insignificant events._

It was the early hours of the morning at Southern Weyr when it happened. It was a hot night and the majority of the inhabitants had fled to the shoreline to sleep near the breeze that came off of the gentle surf, so the beaches were full of Weyrfolk and dragon alike when the all-too familiar hiss of Thread dying in the water drifted towards them. Of the few that were awake only a small handful of them actually realized what it meant, but there was no hope of them raising the alarm quickly enough to do much but flee in panic as the first strands fell into the sand.

Assistant Weyrlingmaster B'jarl was the first to hear the terrified chorus ringing through the minds of the dragons. _Thread?! THREAD!_ They repeated, bellowing their helpless fury as they were devoured by the enemy they'd been told was gone, not to return. The brownrider's mind and soul clenched, his stomach churning as his body reacted to the onslaught of agony. There wasn't room to question what was going on, no energy to do anything but try to shut out the voices of dying dragons as their final cries tore through him.

But nothing was as terrifying as the sound of his own dragon screaming in pain, his presence drowning out the others. _No! Between Endemeth! Between! Come to me!_ he screamed through their bond, running to the entrance of their weyr to try to see where the brown was but was stopped short a few feet from the opening by a writhing mass of thread on the stone ledge. Revolted, B'jarl back-peddled and retreated to the safety of the inner-weyr.

 _It's eating me!_ The familiar brown shape appeared suddenly, forcing his way as far into the weyr as he could to escape the thread. Only years of training saved the dragon as B'jarl found the washbasin to dump on thread that tried to cling to Endemeth, fighting to borrow into the flesh that would sustain it. The tangle fell away, its surface hissing and spitting but it didn't die completely. B'jarl hastily shoved the soggy mass away with his broom, abandoning the thing as the thread latched onto it, but at least the corridor was clear. _It's gone, I am clear. It hurts B'jarl!_ Endemeth told him, crying piteously.

"It's alright love, hold on just a little." It was hard to function with the suffocating noise hammering him physically and mentally, but with shaking hands he managed to dump watered down numbweed over the many scores across his dragon. Many of the scores seemed like they'd been glancing, but the brown's left wing was a complete ruin and he knew immediately that Endemeth would be lucky to fly again. It didn't matter now, he was alive where dragons were dying en masse. It had been nothing more than sheer luck that Endemeth preferred to sleep under the shelter of the bluffs by the ocean rather than directly on the beach as most of the dragon population did.

Now that the wounds were soothed, B'farl could get a report from his dragon, thankful for something to focus on aside from hearing everything. He would always hear the dragons, but with practice he'd learn to fade the many voices to the background when he was concentrating on just one. He put a steadying hand on his brown's shivering hide, doing his best to help calm his friend. _Shevath and Holrenth have fallen, Tekriath, Sorjeth… Anamith!_ B'jarl's face paled even more at the last; that meant the adult queens had all perished in the span of a few minutes. Even through the panic he could feel the anguish from the remaining dragons as they lost their golden leaders. _No!_ Endemeth didn't have to relay the names of the next two, he felt the passing of Pyrakkath and Kovalth as two dragons he'd been particularly close with.

And then more voices that he was strongly connected with started breaking through as the weyrling dragons were waking. Thank Faranth they were safely tucked into the barracks; even if he couldn't get to them while thread was falling outside, they were sheltered. "Endemeth you'll need to help calm them too," he told his brown as he sifted through the frightened young minds to assess them.

 _No R'glan! J'daw! Don't -_ Endemeth cut the command off suddenly and B'jarl recoiled at the loss of Aldroth and Zabeth. The noise was quieting somewhat outside, but this was overtaken by the pandemonium in the weyrling barracks as the large bay doors were opened and the strong Southern winds brought thread into the young men, women and dragons within.

"No damnit!" B'jarl and Endemeth frantically started bellowing orders to the weyrlings, doing what they could to establish some sort of control even as the blues and greens who were nearest the doors started dropping like flies. Neither bothered to keep track at this point, rather their attention was focused on who was alive and keeping them that way. _Harloseth!_ B'jarl called to the young queen, _you must keep them!_ Though only six months old, the gold was already a solid leader but she was floundering at the sheer magnitude of the disaster. She was reaching, grasping after her siblings, trying hold the ones that had lost their lifemates or were panicking into between. _Get everyone away from the door, anything organic needs to be moved so the thread can't get to you. Do not go after the ones tha -_

And then suddenly his contact to the little queen was severed and the Weyr was stunned into a brief silence as the last living gold at Southern died.


	11. Chapter 10

Z'kol had never been more grateful for his selfish sense of self-preservation than that night. Even Parioth could not convince him to move away from the furthest part of the barracks from the doors, though he _was_ doing his best to usher everyone else into the girls' quarters without dying himself. D'nomer and M'lanen had done their best to give him shit for being a coward before foolishly rushing to try to save their classmates. And where had that gotten the duty-bound brothers? Fucking dead. Just like the rest of the heroes who wanted to do good or some shit, and Z'kol was not interested in going down that way.

The second that idiot R'glan had pulled open the doors Z'kol had high-tailed it away. He'd been trapped out during threadfall more times than he could count before getting to the Weyr and he knew the _only_ way to survive that shit was to get away from it. It seemed obvious, but if you didn't let the stuff touch you then you didn't die. To his credit he'd taken the time to grab at anyone near him and drag them back to safety, but once he was to relative safety he sure as fuck wasn't going back that way. And despite having been yelled at to do something to help, he did notice that V'ruxa, who he'd never liked much, had the sense to keep well away while he was gathering all of his little ducklings.

Parioth was fascinated by the thread, the bronze watching with a mixture of horror and morbid interest while his brothers and sisters were devoured alive. _Why does it eat the beds as well? It's enemy to us, not to the furniture._ The dragon paced the quarters that were becoming badly crowded, torn between the need to fight as was in his blood and to understand the menace. _Yes, yes Endemeth you are quite right. Zak, we need to move the wooden structures._

"Have you lost your fuckin' mind? We aren't going out there."

 _But look. The path of destruction will reach us if we do not._

L'duka's bronze, Hawath craned his neck to peer out at the chaos. _Then let those losers do it. We're too good to risk our damn hides out there._ His rider was nearby, nodding empathetically in agreement.

It was a great surprise to them when V'ruxa yelled for them to stay put, his blue Lunsrith relaying these orders to the browns and bronzes that were still alive. _You are more useful alive than dead,_ he told them blandly as he shoved at the wooden sleeping platforms away from the back of the barracks. _We must not lose any more of our leaders. Harloseth you need to stay as well, I'm afraid._

In hindsight perhaps they could have done more to keep the gold from charging into the fray, trying to keep any more of her siblings from dying, but in all fairness no dragon could disobey the direct order from their queen not to interfere. They might have been able to if they were quicker, but she was dead before anyone could even respond to her moving into action. It was then that Z'kol realized maybe there were actually and really fucked.

It felt like the early morning hours lasted forever, but finally a quiet had begun to settle on Southern Weyr. The barracks were hazy with smoke from the one busted up flamethrower they'd had, a project of S'vero's that barely worked but it may have been the difference between living and dying for the weyrling class. The sun was just peeking over the ocean horizon when V'ruxa and V'kayli called that it was clear and the weyrlings tentatively emptied from the cramped space. B'gara, J'vriel and Z'vay were still poking through the smouldering remains of the barracks with buckets of water, searching for any sign of live thread while solemnly avoiding the barely recognizable bodies of the fallen for now.

Even as a person that had seen some dark stuff in his fifteen turns of life, Z'kol was stunned to silence when he saw the wreckage of the night. "Holy shit," he muttered, shading his eyes against the bright rays that filtered their way into the barracks. Technically he and L'duka were the leaders of the class, especially with Shorlin gone, but they quickly followed as V'ruxa and V'kayli took efficient command. They were built for this anyway, groomed and raised to run a Weyr for when they impressed the bronzes everyone told them they'd get and the colours of their dragons didn't matter at this point. He could feel tension from L'duka, though, and he was surprised that the other bronzerider was going along with listening to V'kayli. But then, in this situation old rivalries didn't mean much. For now at least.

 _I'm hungry. It smells like meat here,_ Parioth was saying, dropping his head to sniff at something and Z'kol had to backtrack to shove the bronze's face away from a body as his brain caught up with what his dragon was saying.

"What the fuck man?" Z'kol wasn't a queasy sort by any means, and the charred remains of someone at his feet didn't give him much pause, but shards, he would barf if his dragon took a bite of that. "That's J'redar, or it was anyway. What's wrong with you?"

Parioth looked offended and sheepish, huffing as he moved past the body. _I was just looking,_ he objected, glad everyone else was occupied enough not to have noticed this uncomfortable moment.

A tense silence had fallen over the barracks while the weyrlings gathered near the back, far from the mess that filled the area by the door. A quick count told Z'kol that their group had been cut in half in one night, but that wasn't as devastating as the reports that were coming through their dragons when the weyrlings tried see what was going on outside. Quickly the soft murmurs started to edge towards panic again; there was very little response from the rest of the Weyr. He could see V'ruxa's face go pale, could pinpoint the moment that the bluerider understood the scale of what they were facing and Z'kol had to give the man credit for how well he kept his composure. Except even he seemed unsure of what to say. He cleared his throat several time and was very obviously trying not to let the emotion take over the necessity of leading this group.

"Before we do much of anything," he said finally, "we need to secure ourselves and look after our dragons. If anyone is injured and needs it to be looked at Z'mof can patch you up. J'vriel and S'vero I'm going to put you on watch for now, make sure you stay in contact with B'jarl. He's stuck in his weyr until he can figure out a safe way down or until Endemeth is healed enough to get to ground level, but they'll be watching the skies as well in case this happens again. B'gara, Z'kol, L'duka and K'lari, I'm putting in charge of you looking after the bodies, they need to be taken outside and burned. I'lya, R'meej and Avilla you guys will go through the tunnels to the lower caverns and crafters quarters and see if anyone's down there. Do _not_ go outside. Bring us back something to eat. Everyone else who is able will be helping clear out the rubbish." There was a pause while he let those orders sink in and he took in a shaky breath to steady himself. "We can try to figure everything else out later and we will make sure we take time to mourn and remember everyone, but right now we need to look after ourselves. There isn't much left out there, honestly only a handful of injured dragons so it's essential that we keep it together until help arrives.

"I know it's not easy guys, but we need to get through this morning. We don't have a choice at this point and the work will be good for us. If anyone is struggling or any of the dragons seem like they're getting too stressed make sure you see me right away. I don't expect you to pretend that our friends and family aren't dead, and if you're having hard time, make sure you don't do it alone. Now go on and then we can eat and try to sleep. Nico, V'kayli and R'gile come over and speak with me for a moment. Get to work everyone."

And that was it. Z'kol wasn't surprised by the delegations at all; V'ruxa was a man that knew what he was doing at least and more importantly, he knew the group and understood what they needed. The young bronzerider watched as V'ruxa lead the others away, apparently offering R'gile something to help knock him out for a bit. The man had lost his twin brother after all, who was also responsible for letting thread into the barracks in the first place. Tragic stuff for sure, though Z'kol wasn't inclined to feel much sympathy for either twin at this point. He didn't really feel much of the emotion of the situation himself until he saw V'ruxa speaking quietly to his brothers and the little family broke down for a moment. Nothing pulled at your heartstrings like a little boy and two grown men crying over their lost father.

"Damn." Z'kol hadn't minded V'lada much at all. The man was a tough sonofabitch at least and it stung to see someone like that just snuff it out without even having a chance to fight it. Sucked for all of them outside, though it was over quickly for them probably. Now he and the rest had to live with having watched their comrades be eaten alive or burned alive or… still be alive after watching their dragons die horribly. The young man turned away from the three brothers, his chest tight. And it sucked to be a little kid like V'nico to have to lose his father like that, Z'kol knew from experience how shitty that was and his heart went out to the bitty brownrider.

 _He is not alone though, remember,_ Parioth reminded him gently. _Radakath and his rider have their family and they have those of us who remain. I'll miss Kovalth and Pyrakkath. Why did thread return? Not that I won't enjoy a chance to destroy it, but it's unfair of it to sneak up like a coward when we aren't able to fight. Though I suppose if I always lost I would sneak as well…_

Z'kol grimaced, waving L'duka over to help him get poor J'redar's remains moved. "I don't think thread cares much about honour or anything anyway, and it doesn't seem to know the difference about winning or losing. Not like it's got any brains to think with." Still, that made it even stranger that it just suddenly decided to start falling again. It didn't seem like the sort of thing that should change? The Red Star did what it did, why would it do something different for no reason?

In the end though, Z'kol didn't actually care about the reason for it, he just wanted to understand more so that he knew how to survive it. If it was going to keep falling they needed to be ready for it and from the sounds of it there wasn't a whole lot of dragons left out there to fight. It meant sticking indoors until they knew the patterns enough to avoid being caught out and maybe coming up with some tactics to defend against it. Granted, Z'kol was happy enough to hide away, even if Parioth could be convinced to do this, but he knew most of their classmates would have some sense of duty wounded at not fighting.

It would be interesting to see how the next few days went.


End file.
